Messaging systems, such as the short messaging service (SMS), have been part of wireless communications systems for many years, providing a popular addition to voice telephony. Support for messaging systems on user equipment was introduced as part of the GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) standards. The wide use of such messaging systems by users mean that this support has continued as the technology for mobile telephony has developed, with GSM being replaced or augmented by third generation (3G) digital systems, which in turn are set to be replaced or augmented by the proposals of the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) in the form of the Long Term Evolution (LTE) standards. LTE provides enhancements to the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) and offers a developmental base for the fourth generation (4G) LTE Advanced systems.
Newer technologies such as LTE may use an Internet Protocol (IP) based network architecture. This network architecture needs to support SMS messaging over an IP network as well as offer support for legacy SMS systems such as GSM. To do this an IP Short Message (IP SM) gateway is often provided. The IP SM gateway can receive SMS messages from SMS service centres (SMS-SCs) and also arrange delivery of SMS messages over an IP network. The IP SM gateway may be coupled to core architecture of the IP network. The use of an IP SM gateway introduces certain complexities into the network, which can lead to increased network traffic and transport overheads for both the network and attached devices.
As technology develops a further challenge is to provide support for a wide variety of user equipment and network operator implementations. User equipment comes in many different forms and may use a variety of communications standards to access wireless communications systems. This makes it difficult to provide an SMS that can support a wide range of user devices and protocols.
It is an object of the invention to provide optimised network messaging over a data network.